Rev. Dr. Danté R. Quick of First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens, a big-box church in Somerset, NJ, encourages his congregants to vote for black candidates because black prosecutors and judges are involved in various indictments against former President Donald Trump. This speech was delivered before his sermon during an August 6, 2023 worship service.

—TRANSCRIPT—

Now, at First Baptist I don't have to ask y'all to vote. But we need to start now. And we need to call our cousins in every state. Matter of fact, we need to start having family Zoom meetings just to talk about voting. New Jersey may be a Democratic state, but we are not talking about New Jersey. We need to call Alabama and Georgia and Mississippi and South Carolina and North Carolina. And we need to encourage all of our family members.

Because the only people who have the option to actually ensure justice for Mr. Trump: the DA in Georgia is a black woman. The Manhattan DA is a black man. The federal judge in Washington, DC is a black woman.

Power matters. And it is only attained when people vote. Because a system that is structured against you can only be transformed from within, not without. We can march all we want, but if we aren't marching to the polls, it don't make a difference. We can have all the speeches we want, but if we don't speak through a ballot, it don't make a difference. And so we have to ensure justice for all through our voting.

And this will be one of the most consequential elections in our lifetimes. I think this is a more important election than the election of Barack Obama. Because if Donald Trump is allowed to become the President of the United States, again, this is not whether you are a Democrat or Republican, but if you don't recognize this man has no moral or ethical grounding and that the people around him have no moral or ethical grounding, this is about the very existence of democracy. And, as always, black people will save democracy in America.

So I am going to start urging you to vote. And as we honor our dear lieutenant governor [Sheila Oliver] who has gone to Glory, the way to honor her is to honor the vote that got her there.

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